1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic component inspection apparatus for inspecting package components such as a package IC, or electronic components such as a bare chip that is diced from a wafer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the manufacturing process for electronic components such as a semiconductor device, various inspections of the electronic component, such as an IC, which are finally manufactured, must be made. For example, there is known a device inspecting apparatus (i.e., an electronic component inspection apparatus), disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-148507.
This inspecting apparatus includes an unloader portion, a loader portion, an empty tray portion, a heating portion, two sorting portions, an IC socket, a component transfer mechanism, and the like. The first sorting portion, the unloader portion, the loader portion and the empty tray portion are disposed in line in the X-axis direction. The IC socket (i.e., an inspection portion) is disposed in the Y-axis direction separate from the above-described elements. In addition, the second sorting portion and the heating portion are disposed in line away from the first sorting portion and the like in the Y-axis direction.
A component on the loader portion is transferred to the heating portion, using a suction pad (hereinafter, referred to as a suction nozzle) of the component transfer mechanism (hereinafter, referred to as a component transferring device). Then, the heated component (hereinafter, referred to as the component) is transferred to the IC socket and is inspected. Among the components that have been inspected, the one which has met a standard is transferred to the unloader portion, and the one which has not met the standard is transferred to the first or second sorting portion, respectively, by the component transfer mechanism.
In such an inspecting apparatus, an inspection of the components is done after they have been precisely positioned in a predetermined direction with respect to the inspection portion. This is important to realize firm and precise inspections of components. In the apparatus according to the prior art, a CCD camera is placed in the component transferring device so that components on the loader portion are imaged before they are inspected, so that the positions or other characteristics of the components can be determined from those images. Thus, the positions in which the components will be picked up by the suction nozzle are corrected in advance, and then, the components are picked up and transferred.
However, when the components are picked up by the suction nozzle, they may slip out of position. Also, while the components are being transferred, they may be shaken, or other problems may occur, such that the position of the component relative to the suction nozzle shifts. Therefore, in the apparatus according to the prior art, components cannot necessarily be precisely positioned in the inspection portion. Hence, this problem needs to be corrected.
According to the above-described prior art, right before components are set in the inspection portion, a component can be positioned and set a first time, and an image of the component can be captured by a CCD camera. Then, the position of the component is corrected and it is suctioned and picked up again, and then, it is set again in the inspection portion. However, even in that case, when a component is picked up after its image has been captured, a suction shift may occur. Besides, a component has to be picked up again, which takes additional time. This prevents components from being inspected effectively and precisely.
In addition, in the apparatus according to the prior art, the sorting portions or the inspection portion is located in a position which is displaced in the Y-axis direction from the loader portion or the like. Therefore, when the component transferring device transfers components from the loader portion to the inspection portion, or when it transfers components from the inspection portion to the unloader portion or the sorting portions (especially, to the side of the heating portion), the suction nozzle needs to be extensively moved not only in the X-axis direction but also in the Y-axis direction. Hence, the apparatus tends to become larger in the Y-axis direction, thereby preventing a reduction in the size of the apparatus. Besides, the suction nozzle moves over a great distance in both the X-axis and Y-axis directions. This makes it difficult, for example, to increase the transfer speed from the viewpoint of control, thus preventing accurate and efficient inspections.